Jarl Dragonheart is growing old, as are many of the Ulfheonar who built the Clan of the Wolf beside him. The prospect of finally laying down his sword disappears when the ambitious Dane Klakke Blue Cheek draws the clan into a scheme aimed at Wessex, reviving rivalries that Dragonheart had hoped the next generation would inherit only as stories.
The campaign forces him to confront enemies from the present and unresolved matters from his own past. Old alliances are tested as Christian kingdoms and Norse rulers compete for advantage. The novel uses the idea of weregeld—payment for blood and obligation—as a broader question about what is still owed after decades of raiding, settlement and vengeance, and whether an ageing warrior can ever be free of those debts.
Bernard Cornwell
57 books
M J Porter
49 books
K. M. Ashman
37 books
Cecelia Holland
20 books
Sharon Kay Penman
14 books